$17 million Murdoch payoff shows Brits know the right way to be ruined by scandal

$17 million Murdoch payoff shows Brits know the right way to be ruined by scandal

If you’re going to be forced from your job in disgrace after leading a giant international media firm into a national scandal, this is the way to do it.

Rebekah Brooks, the former News Corp. executive who is facing numerous charges over alleged criminality related to Britain’s telephone hacking scandal, received a payoff of $17 million when she was finally dumped by Rupert Murdoch in July 2011.

BothThe Guardian and the Financial Timesreported that the payment – at least $6 million higher than had been previously reported — was disclosed by NI Group Ltd, the UK holding company for The Sun and Times newspapers. It says an unnamed director [Brooks] received £10.852 million as “compensation for loss of office”. That money includes “various ongoing benefits” – including the funding for an office and staff in London for two years.

It also disclosed that Brooks’s legal costs will be paid for by the company. According to the FT, ongoing benefits for Brooks include “reimbursement for all legal and other professional costs incurred with ongoing investigations until those investigations are completed. The company also agreed to pay the tax associated with the legal and other professional costs.”

That could get pricey. The Guardian says Brooks is facing three sets of charges related to the hacking scandal, which came to light when it was revealed some News Corp. papers regularly hacked into private voicemails in search of stories. It reports:

She has been accused of conspiring with her husband, Charlie, and others to pervert the course of justice and frustrate an investigation by the Metropolitan police into the publisher.

She is also facing two charges in relation to conspiring to intercept the voicemails of individuals, including the mobile phone of a missing teenager, the revelation of which set off the scandal. She is also facing a charge in relation to corrupt payments allegedly made to a former Ministry of Defence official for stories, alongside the Sun’s former chief reporter John Kay.

The hacking scandal has shaken Murdoch’s UK empire. The BBC reports more than 4,000 people have been identified by police as possible victims of phone hacking by the News of the World, which Murdoch closed as a result of the scandal. It has toppled James Murdoch from his perch as heir apparent, let to prosecutions related to hundreds of cases, and prompted an inquiry into “the culture, practices and ethics” of the British press and its relationships with police and politicians. Amongh targets of the hacking attempts were “politicians, celebrities, actors, sports people, relatives of dead UK soldiers and people who were caught up in the 2007 London bombings.”

In the year to June 30 2012, according to the Financial Times, Murdoch’s British tabloid division incurred one-off costs of £46.6 million, in addition to the £160 million writedown for closing the News of the World.

Almost a quarter of the £46m in charges resulted from the payoff to Brooks, it said. Imagine what she’d have gotten if she’d actually done a good job.